Free seminar on ocean preservation: "No Blue, No Green"

Dr. Sylvia Earle pioneered as a woman ocean scientist, studying marine life and even living underwater for two weeks. On October 4 she is keynote speaker at a free seminar at UiS.

The seminar, titled No Blue No Green in her honour, is hosted by the University of Stavanger (Faculty of Science and Technology) in cooperation with IRIS (The International Research Institute of Stavanger) and the Rachel Carson Prize.

The venue is Tjodhallen, which is in the Kjølv Egeland building at Ullandhaug (UiS main campus). The seminar starts at 0900 hrs on October 4, 2017, and lasts until noon.

Programme:

In aquaculture, pesticides are used against parasitic salmon lice to protect the health of farmed and wild Atlantic salmon. How can this use of pesticides as medicine affect our coastal marine environment?

The strict regulatory requirements introduced in 1996/97 to conduct oil and gas production on the Norwegian Continental Shelf without damage to the marine environment lead to changes in how the industry´s environmental management was done.

It was required to be more proactive and focused on the capacity to monitor and control possible adverse effects. Certainly it has been challenging to meet the requirements to avoid damage, but also to establish methods and tools to obtain the right information created scientific challenges. An improved assessment system has been gradually developed and made operational.

How is this system? Is it now sufficient to safeguard the marine environment as the regulation requires?

Sampling and observation of the species present in an environment is critical to understand and managing ecosystems. Species detection using environmental DNA (eDNA), the genetic material from whole microbial cells or shed from multicellular organisms, is becoming a reality and offers tremendous potential over traditional observation methods. What can we tell from a simple bucket of seawater?

How to feed a growing human population? How to avoid overharvesting Earth’s resources? The use of renewable biological resources from sea and land: this is bioeconomy. The bioeconomy presents alternatives to over exploitation of natural resources, focusing on efficient and innovative use of renewable biological resources using fewer raw materials, with less environmental impact, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Could the future be blue and green?”

Fate and effects of synthetic polymers - the sub-micro-plastic problem. Roald Kommedal, Associate professor, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Mathematics and Natural Science, UiS.
Plastics and especially micro-plastic material has received broad media and research attention over the last five to ten years. Several studies on fate and effects of plastic particles in the micron range has been published, and reports on their presence in a range of habitats is numerous. Lately a global investigation proved micro-plastic to be present in drinking water.

In this presentation, we will highlight the fate and effect of synthetic polymers, and connect this to the micro-plastic problem. Examples will be given on use of synthetic polymers in industrial and municipal water applications, and possible aquatic effects and ultimate fate will be discussed.

No Blue, No Green.
Sylvia Earle, American marine biologist, explorer, author, and lecturer. She has been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence since 1998. See full bio.

Earle was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and was named by Time Magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998. The same magazine recently ranked her as one of the Women Who Changed The World (video).